Nandlaala Gopaala

This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

DIL KI PYAAS (1935) was produced under the banner of Bharat Lakshmi Pictures and it was directed by J J Madan and Sorabji Karewala. The star cast included Jahanara Kajjan, Patient Cooper, Mukhtar Begum, Fida Hussain, Surajram, Violet Cooper, Gama etc.
I heard the name of the film for the first time a few days ago. I could not find on the internet any more details about the film.

The film had 14 songs in it that penned by Agha Hashr Kashmiri and were set to music by Master Nagar Das Nayak. As per Kamlakar Pasupaleti’s Blog, only one song from the film ‘Nandalala Gopala Murliwaala re’ sung by Kamla Jharia was released on 78 RPM record No. JNG.849. The flip side of the record had a non-film song ‘bharmat chalat yogiraj’ sung by Kamla Jharia. I find it surprising as the film had Jahanara Kajjan and Mukhtar Begum as actors who were very popular singers of their times. On the other hand, Kamla Jharia did not act in the film.

Who was Kamla Jharia and how did her name get associated with the place called Jharia? How did she get involved in singing and film industry?

Kamla Jharia’s real name was Kamla Singha. She lived in the palace of the Maharaja of Jharia (now in Dhanbad, Jharkhand). Her parents probably worked in the palace in some capacity. Mr. K. Mullick who at the time was a very popular gramophone singer, was invited to the palace to sing at the court of Maharaja Shiva Prasad on the occasion of his marriage. The Maharaja was so pleased with K. Mullick’s performance that he appointed him his court singer at Jharia. During his stay at Jharia, he discovered Kamla’s musical talent. He brought her to Calcutta and introduced her to HMV authorities.

Kamla recorded four songs for HMV and went back to Jharia. Her first published record was a red label numbered N 3137 in 1930 consisting of two Bengali songs – a ghazal and a dadra. The authorities had some problem in naming the artist. They knew her name but not her surname. They could not credit her as Miss Kamla because there was already one singer of the same name. Finally it was decided to identify her as Miss Kamla Jharia keeping in mind her then place of residence and thus began her illustrious musical career with that name.

Her formal training in music was under the tutelage of giants like Ujir Khan for thumris, ghazals and Indian classical music, Jamiruddin Khan, K. Mullick, Satish Ghosh and Shrinath Das Nandi,for whom she formally performed the Nara Bandhan and became a regular student. Later, she came in contact with Kazi Nazrul Islam and also Tulsi Lahiri, who was a film director, producer, lyricist and the music director. Later, Kamla Jharia became closely associated with Tulsi Lahiri in her personal life and lived with him as his wife.

Kamla Jharia joined films in 1933 with a Bengali film ‘Jamuna Puliney’ (1933), which happened to be the first sound film of Miss Angurbala and and Indubala also. Thereafter she appeared in some more Bengali films. She worked as an actor in Hindi films like ‘Blood Feud’ (1931), ‘Sunhera Sansar’ (1936), ‘Dalit Kusum’ (1936), ‘Country Girl’ (1936), ‘Abhaagin’ (1938), ‘Matwali Meera’ (1940), ‘Gareeb Ki Ladki’ (1941) etc.

Apart from Bengali, she used to sing in Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Punjabi, Gujarati and many other Indian languages. At that period, no other artiste would sing in so many different languages which explain her All India status and popularity. As a playback singer, she lent her voice in the Hindi film Salima (1935) directed by Madhu Bose. However, she appeared to have lent her voice in only 3 Hindi films – ‘Dil Ki Pyaas’ (1935), ‘Struggle’ (1936) and ‘Abhaagin’ (1938). Her singing career spanned over three decades and it is estimated that she may have recorded over 500 songs in various languages. Ghazals, thumri, naats, and bhajans were her main forte.

Kamla was associated with All India Radio as a singer since its inception. In 1976, The Gramophone Company of India honoured her with a Gold Disc, as a mark of lifetime achievement.

She toured all over India singing at the durbars of different native princes. In 1977, during the celebration of the golden jubilee of All India Radio, she was felicitated as one of the living artistes who had taken part from the beginning of All India Radio. This was Kamla’s last public appearance. A documentary titled “Teen Kanya” was made on the lives and achievements of Kamla Jharia, Angurbala and Indubala in 1972 and all the three artistes were present on the first day of the film’s screening.

Kamla Jharia suffered from chronic asthma for a long time. She passed away on 20th December, 1979.

[Source of information on Kamla Jharia is mainly from Dr. Jyoti Prasad Guha’s article published on SIRC Annual 2008 issue].

I am presenting the only recorded song ‘Nandlala Gopala Murliwaala re’ from the film DIL KI PYAAS (1935). The song is a Krishna Bhajan sung by Kamla Jharia. The bhajan is penned by Agha Hashr Kashmiri which is set to music by Master Nagar Das Nayak. The song is rendered in semi-classical style with aalaaps and ornamentation. That explains as to why there is only one antara in the bhajan and there is no musical interlude.